Szarmach receives Medal of Service from Poland

Dec. 10, 2004

KALAMAZOO--Dr. Paul E. Szarmach, director of the Medieval
Institute at Western Michigan University, has been commended
for his efforts to build bridges between American and Polish
medievalists by Aleksander Kwasniewski, president of the Republic
of Poland.

A letter from the president's office cites Szarmach's "outstanding
service in developing a collaboration with the Polish scientific
institutions" and confers upon him an Officer Cross of the
Medal for Services for Poland.

Szarmach was among nine scholars, and one of two Americans
recognized at a ceremony Nov. 26 at the Presidential Palace in
Warsaw. Medals were presented by President Kwasniewski's chief
of staff Yolanta Szymaniak-Deresz. President Kwasniewski was
in Kiev participating in negotiations on the recent Ukrainian
presidential election and was unable to attend the Warsaw ceremony.

Szarmach accepted the award while in Poland for the Third
Medieval English Studies Symposium Nov. 27-28 in Poznan. He also
visited and lectured Nov. 30-Dec. 3 at the Catholic University
in Lubin.